[tex-live] How to "alter" texmf.cnf

[Arthur Ogawa]

I am working on behalf of an author who uses a SunOS computer with a TL6
installation. He does not have write access to the TeX installation
itself, and we need to change pool_size so a large macro package can be loaded.

I attempted to set a value for the TEXMFCNF environment variable so that
the applications reads from a modified texmf.cnf in the author's texmf tree:

~/2.ed/ogawa/macros ) echo $shell
/bin/tcsh
~/2.ed/ogawa/macros ) echo $TEXMFCNF
/saruman/accounts/research/jpwork/texmf/web2c/
~/2.ed/ogawa/macros ) ls -l $TEXMFCNF/*.cnf
-rw-r--r--   1 jpwork   statgrad   26082 Dec  3 11:59 /saruman/accounts/research/jpwork/texmf/web2c//texmf.cnf

Yet, when I run (ini)tex, it does not find my modified texmf.cnf:

~/2.ed/ogawa/macros ) /scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/tex
-kp=-1 -ini \\end > & texput.cns

The console looks like:

kdebug:fopen(/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/tex, r) => 0x750d0
kdebug:fclose(0x750d0) => 0
kdebug:Search path for cnf files (from compile-time paths.h)
kdebug:  = /scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin:/scratch/spector/TeX:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/share/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/share/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/share/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/share/texmf/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/share/texmf/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/share/texmf/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/texmf/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/texmf/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/texmf/web2c::/opt/local/tex/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/tex/texmf/web2c
kdebug:  before expansion = {$SELFAUTOLOC,$SELFAUTODIR,$SELFAUTOPARENT}{,{/share,}/texmf{.local,}/web2c}:$TETEXDIR:/opt/local/tex/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/tex/texmf/web2c
kdebug:  application override path = (none)
kdebug:  application config file path = (none)
kdebug:  texmf.cnf path = (none)
kdebug:  compile-time path = {$SELFAUTOLOC,$SELFAUTODIR,$SELFAUTOPARENT}{,{/share,}/texmf{.local,}/web2c}:$TETEXDIR:/opt/local/tex/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/tex/texmf/web2c
kdebug:  default suffixes = .cnf
kdebug:  other suffixes = (none)
kdebug:  search only with suffix = 0
kdebug:  numeric format value = 8
kdebug:  runtime generation program = (none)
kdebug:  extra program args = (none)
kdebug:  program enabled = 0
kdebug:  program enable level = 0
kdebug:start search(file=texmf.cnf, must_exist=1, find_all=1, path=/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin:/scratch/spector/TeX:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/share/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/share/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/share/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/texmf.local/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/share/texmf/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/share/texmf/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/share/texmf/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/texmf/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/texmf/web2c:/scratch/spector/TeX/texmf/web2c::/opt/local/tex/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/tex/texmf/web2c).
kdebug:path element /scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7 => /scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/
kdebug:path element /scratch/spector/TeX/bin => /scratch/spector/TeX/bin/
kdebug:path element /scratch/spector/TeX => /scratch/spector/TeX/
kdebug:path element
/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/share/texmf.local/web2c =>
kdebug:path element /scratch/spector/TeX/bin/share/texmf.local/web2c =>
kdebug:path element /scratch/spector/TeX/share/texmf.local/web2c =>
kdebug:path element
/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/texmf.local/web2c =>
kdebug:path element /scratch/spector/TeX/bin/texmf.local/web2c =>
kdebug:path element /scratch/spector/TeX/texmf.local/web2c =>
kdebug:path element
/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/share/texmf/web2c =>
kdebug:path element /scratch/spector/TeX/bin/share/texmf/web2c =>
kdebug:path element /scratch/spector/TeX/share/texmf/web2c =>
kdebug:path element
/scratch/spector/TeX/bin/sparc-solaris2.7/texmf/web2c =>
kdebug:path element /scratch/spector/TeX/bin/texmf/web2c =>
kdebug:path element /scratch/spector/TeX/texmf/web2c => /scratch/spector/TeX/texmf/web2c/
kdebug:path element /opt/local/tex/texmf/web2c =>
kdebug:fopen(/scratch/spector/TeX/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf, r) => 0x750d0
kdebug:fclose(0x750d0) => 0

That is, the texmf.cnf that is found lies in the default search path.

So, I must have failed to tell tex to look elsewhere for its texmf.cnf
file. Perhaps the line:

kdebug:  texmf.cnf path = (none)

is diagnostic. 

Can anyone tell me what I am doning wrong, or what I ought to be doing?

Thanks for your attention.

Arthur Ogawa/TeX Consultants